Fear and Loathing
by Copper Inkwell
Summary: Due to the growing importance of the Fenton name in the scientific community, Ghost Hunting is becoming a popular activity and cultural trend for everybody. Everybody being all but Danny and the ghosts being hunted, of course.
1. Chapter 1

Because disclamers are a thing: I do not own Danny Phantom; that would be Butch Hartman.

This story will begin with a tasteful cliche.

It was unnaturally quiet.

Considering the setting she was in and the sounds she should hear, the observation of quiet only added 'loosing faith in human decency' to the pool of the _wonderful_ emotions that the visit already brought. This observation was made with the ears of a hunter who has learned to use her hearing to listen. She noted that the constant whirling and beeping of the machines that kept the hospital patients breathing along with whatever sounds the staff mixed with the clank of her heels against tile were the only sounds on that floor of this hospital the mother heard.

This meant that Madeline Fenton was the only person who was bothered to visit any family who has unfortunately landed themselves in the hospital for the whole entirety of the time she had been there on that day. And as a mother, she normally would feel some type of resentment to whoever was neglecting to visit the injured and sick. Pity would go for the people who were waiting for a visit. But the eldest female Fenton was oddly distracted so she was not dwelling on the well being of others but preparing to receive news about her son.

A nurse whose name Maddie never bothered to remember was leading her to the office of the trusted family doctor from the GIW who was getting paid handsomely for being in charge of the current health and eventual recovery of her son Daniel. And she, while not easily wavered by anything much besides her thirst for knowledge, could not to help but to feel her insides squirm and give into a nervous and sinister feeling shiver. Being the _optimistic_ person she was, Madeline did not want to know what was exactly wrong with her son because she has been assuming the worst.

The silence in the hospital, which reeked of alcohol and death, did not help in the slightest bit with the feeling of unease. Luckily for Maddie, even if she didn't want it, the nurse had stopped and opened the door to the office where the doctor worked in.

The silver haired doctor in question was sitting down in his own chair and had offered the woman a seat while the nurse closed the door, leaving the two to talk in private.

"Good afternoon, Dr. Stein," Maddie spoke a polite greeting as she sat down in the chair facing the desk, "I can only assume that you know why I'm here."

"Why yes of course, Mrs. Fenton, straight to business as usual," Stein paused while he pulled a few highlighted papers out of the vanilla folder labeled 'Daniel James Fenton'.

"To start with, you're lucky your son was wearing the proper lab protection while he got into the accident in your lab. While I do not know exactly what happened seeing as he was the only witness to this incident, I can speculate that the source of electricity which he was exposed to was high enough to render the anti-ecto properties and the rubber of his HAZMAT suit useless. When you visited your son just now I'm sure you saw him on the special bed that rested him on his stomach due to how his entire left arm and the majority of his back were severely burned by the electricity. In the long term, this will only lead to visual scars similar to those of people who have survived lightning. For now, the skin which got the worst of it will be sensitive."

With the first of his two major points about his newest patient concluded, he lifted his eyes off of the report to see how the mother on the receiving end was taking it. Considering the fact that he has seen her come in and out of the hospital quite a bit (but under less seriously circumstances), he was not not surprised to see a face wearing a mask without any readable emotions. So Stein continued on with reading the report.

"The next note I made is that Daniel even survived the electrocution. Besides the fact his body was quite literally cooked, we can assume that the electricity stopped his heart. Seeing how Daniel is still with the living, how he is already on a fast road to recovery, and what kind of lab the accident took place in, we guess that a source of fresh Ectoplasm is what kept him from initially dying. The rest of the the affects that we have noted in the short twelve hours since he has been admitted to us are an abnormally cold body temperature and internal ecto-contamination. In short, its nothing life threatening but you may want to be sure that he is not exposed to neither the sun or the cold for too long."

This time around, Madeline had dropped the mask. Despite news of Danny being contaminated by a unpredictable radioactive substance which ironically saved his life, she let her shoulders and posture go slack in a exaggerated but noticeable manner as she let herself relish the news that her son had so little damage considering the severity of the accident.

But as the scientist she was and the organization that the man she was talking to showed loyalty to, she knew that this was not the end of the conversation.

"It relives me to hear good news, Doctor," began Maddie moments after she reached a conclusion, "But based on what you told me, you have noted some interesting properties of ectoplasm that have acted upon my son. Seeing how I have successfully completed Task:P005, would you perhaps have any messages from our superiors to pass onto me?"

"Sharp as ever, Mrs. Fenton," Dr. Stein mused while he moved his office chair over to a filing cabinet.

"Our superiors would like to congratulate you and your husband on completing the task and for me to give you your next one," the doctor pulled out a orange envelope labeled 'T:GZE001' and gave it to Maddie who was already expecting to receive it.

"They don't give us a single day of rest, do they? I just hope it won't take as long as the Portal did." She voiced aloud with distaste, noting the weight of the papers which made up her next government assigned task.

Dr. Stein scoffed at this. "It comes with the job. Oh! Almost forgot to tell you that our superiors decided to cover the payment of Daniel's treatment as a 'Thanks for all the detailed notes' reward."

This brought a dim light of humor to her eyes. "Good thing I don't have to worry about that then, the idea of me putting food on your table pains me."

And she got up from the chair and gathered her belongings.

''And now, I must go. I have a hysterical family at home waiting for news about Danny and I would not be surprised in the slightest if by now if my husband and daughter have held a funeral for him and used his favorite possessions in replacement of his body."

"Alright then, Mrs. Fenton. Good day then."

"Good day to you, too."

And with that, Madeline Fenton had left. While she still felt pretty horrible, at least she felt a slight bit better.

 _ **HI. i am Copper Inkwell(this introduction is already cheesy, i congratulate myself)**_

 _ **This is my fist fanfic**_

 _ **Today, as in the day this was posted, when i woke up, i decided that i needed a new hobby at the moment because the art community is really something and i need a will to live.**_

 _ **Thus, this was born.**_

 _ **I think that i am a bad writer but heyyyyyyyy (you get better with practice, i think) this was actually fun to plan in the shower and then fun to write out. but at the same time i didn't make this teaser(i guess thats what this is) any longer because i am a lazy person.**_ _**But yeah, i wanted a story that would end up with a Ghost King!Danny so im doing it myself hehe :3**_ _**Soooooo yeah. tell me what you think and feel free to leave any constructive criticisms because i need it and to ask me questions~~**_ _**.**_ _**.**_ _**and the filler character Dr. Stein was totally not inspired by Soul Eater.**_


	2. Chapter 2

Hi. Again.  
SO I GIVE MY THANKS TO THE THREE BEAUTIFUL REVIEWERS WHO HAVE GIVEN ME MOTIVATION TO WRITE. AND I'll add that I changed the summary. Still the same idea but more simply worded.

Maddie was in the car driving home from the hospital. The radio got annoying quickly, as the only things it was offering to hear were ads or the latest news in politics that she did not care about. So, it was not long before the radio was turned off and she had begun to think in the silence of the car. Her most relevant thought was about the sarcastic statement she had made about how her family was most likely panicking. That was probably somewhat true. Maybe not the 'holding a funeral' part but it may have been somewhere closer to a inside silent panic. Maybe it was not panic her family was feeling but more of a sense of foreboding sense which spelled bad news and death.

She was feeling quite guilty too. The guilt was about the fact that she was gone at the hospital for over half a day and she never had called her family to tell them that Danny would be just fine after some treatment and time to heal. Jazz and Jack were probably assuming the worst news, too.

After all, the whole family was woken up by Daniel's scream that came from the lab at a late night hour. The power went out before she and Jack could make it to the lab so they continued in the dark. The scene they were met with made them glad they had sent Jazz to find a phone to use to call for help for two different reasons. One was being that the phone would not work due to the power outage. The second one was what the accident had done to Danny.

The lab was lit with a dim, supernatural green light that came from the portal. _The portal that was actually working._ Maddie should have been happy one of her life-long projects was actually working but the scent of burnt flesh didn't even let her register that the fact. Danny was laying on the floor, shaking by one of the lab tables he probably tried to use as a support, and breathing shallow breaths that were few in between. The HAZMAT suit he wore did not look quite right either. The black glove that was supposed to be on his left hand was melting off along with part of the sleeve to reveal nasty burns.

After seeing her son like that, she wouldn't blame her family if they were assuming the worst.

The thought ended with Maddie was wishing that in the half-awake rush to become presentable, to prepare the paperwork that a visit to the ER might need, and to follow the ambulance to the hospital via speeding car that she had remembered to grab her phone off of its charger. Maybe to make up for it she'd buying her husband some fudge to make up for it. And while she was at it, she'd buy Jazz that book she said she wanted.

Jack Fenton was as terrible at waiting as he was impulsive. In other words, he was incredibly bad at waiting. And in his life he had learned that some things he had to wait for were worse more than others. Depending on how bad he wanted the thing he was waiting for was, it would determine if he would slip into one his quiet, bad moods. The long hours he had been waiting for his wife to come back with news on Danny made him remember the fact very well.

And so Jack, who made a move out of character, decided to distract himself by doing something productive. Better he be a moody person who was busy than to be a moody person who would ruin everything. There was also the possibility he would even work the bulk of his bad mood away.

When Maddie had left in the mad rush that the events of last night created, Jack as not left without a task. Or at least his own self assigned task that he would have to submit to his employer soon, regardless. But he didn't begin it immediately, Jack had let the initial shock the whole ordeal to wear off for himself and Jazz before he had asked if she had knew anything about why Danny was even at the lab at a late night hour. That began his productive streak.

To his mild surprise, his daughter did know something.

Her story went that last night she had caught Danny, who was sneaking out of his room and was going for the stairs. So Jazz had asked him where he was going. Her brother had told her that he wanted to make a gesture to cheer up his mom and dad after their first failed attempt to activate the portal. An elaboration being that he wanted to clean the lab. Jazz decided to let him go forward with an act of kindness that she thought would not harm anybody.

So Jack dedicated some time to comfort his daughter. Jazz had felt guilty about letting her accident-prone brother into a dangerous place like the lab.

After the father-daughter time, a exhausted Jazz had went back to bed while Jack became focused on his matters concerning work. Which he nearly never did.

Though, Jazz said Danny was in the lab. And Jack knew that the portal certainly wasn't functioning when he came in. Somehow the portal to the Ghost Zone was opened during Danny's accident. He would try first to find out how that had happened. It would also be nice to know if it was the portal itself or any of the other high-voltage equipment the lab contained that hurt Danny. So when the power came back online, he tried to do this by checking the footage on the cameras, the goal to see how the portal was activated. One fruitless hour in total was how long Jack bothered with trying to retrieve the lost footage of whatever had done Danny before and during the accident. There was no footage. There were no answers.

The conclusion was that the cause of what caused the portal to activated would be a mystery unless Daniel could come and tell them himself how it had happened, if he even did know how it was achieved. Jack moved on from trying to identify the cause of the portal's activation to making a collection on the notes they had on everything of the Portal. No, they did not know the cause of how it activated after the first attempt failed but, the open portal was a valuable gold mine of data nevertheless. One hour itself was spent documenting the first failure. Two hours were spent on adding the updated surplus of notes onto the already running entries of notes they made on the portal. Wanting to waste more time, he took the liberty of adding his own theories, opinions, and comments to the notes. It may have been daybreak when Jack finally got tired of sitting at his computer in the lab so he went ahead and sent the updated collection of work to his superiors from the GIW.

He then proceeded to go to bed. The term 'went to be' was nothing less than literal here, of course. Indeed, Jack Fenton did go to his physical bed and laid under his covers in the dark with his eyes closed but it never got much further. That 'going to bed' was just that. Even with the attempt that was made, ultimately he did not sleep.

He got up eventually, the time was around two hours before noon at this point.

He got up for Jazz. He would make her a breakfast, he decided. Nothing fancy of course, but something to brighten up her day. Like a bowl of their favorite flavor oatmeal with a side of annoying dad jokes. Jack doubted that she had gotten much sleep either, so maybe they both could do with a light atmosphere to relieve tension.

The morning had melted into the late afternoon by the time Maddie pulled into the driveway. And when she stepped out of the car without a face that suggested she had cried in the past five hours, Jack's mood improved significantly.

He could expect good news if his wife was not sobbing. That meant that their son was not dead.

_  
Let's play 'spot the really lazy ending'. Oh! And then we can play a game of of 'I make the most creative games/game titles' and 'author hopes that people like this'.


	3. Chapter 3

YowazzzpoppinitsyourboiCopperInkWellhereandimbackwithmoretopqualitycontentandnospaces. Ye. This would have come out way sooner if the past four weeks haven't been full of -wait for it- exams. Exams plus the sudden inspiration to draw(my art block, which sorta made me even begin this was cured) instead of writing. That plus pure procrastination.

Anyways, my thanks goes out to the people who followed and left a review last chapter and those who even read this. Enjoy~

After the hospital gave a call to the Fenton family, it barely took them two minutes for them to be packed up snugly in the old car they owned and ecstatically driving in a hellbent manner that only that family of scientists could manage to the location of the hospital. When they got there, finding parking wasn't an easy task either. If the hospital was a ghost town when Maddie visited it less than a week ago than this time it seemed busier than a Walmart on a Christmas eve. Compliments to the help of Jack's infamous driving because that was how they got a good spot.

Then, after dealing with a receptionist who refused to even acknowledge the waiting family's existence for a good twenty minutes, did they finally get somebody who could give them the run-through of how Danny was doing and lead them to his room. Said person did their job. They lead them through busy, winding hallways while putting themselves on a pedestal and raving on about how with the aid of state-of-the-art technology and educated staff that they were able to heal his muscle and skin, which were practically cooked and should have been rendered useless after an accident of such magnitude.. After that doctor was finished with their boasting, they left the family to their visit with the information that Danny still may be asleep.

Maddie was the one who opened the door with Jazz and Jack following behind her eagerly into the room. They saw Danny lying there clad in hospital clothes resembling pajamas, looking like any other patient, not that protective white and black hazmat suit which had been melted onto his skin barely a week ago. He was in a normal bed this time too, without the previous surplus of wires Maddie saw connected to her son that were keeping him alive on her previous visit. And his arm. It hadn't been shriveled and charred remains of skin that were desperately clinging onto raw and exposed muscles, veins, and the sliver of exposed bones peaking through red, black, and neon green from his arm to his back like it did when Maddie and Jack found him. Sure Danny and his arm still looked pretty bad and they had a bit of a way to go before he would be completely healed save maybe a Litchenberg scar, burn scars, and any form of scar tissue in general but maybe whatever that doctor was saying about artificial super healing evidently was somewhat true. Besides that, Danny was lying there asleep, much to everybody's secret but shared dismay. Especially for Jack. So he proposed the idea of trying to shake Danny awake.

And that's how they got into the argument they were in now.

"You're lucky that the hospital even let us visit him so early, Jack. Don't. Push. It," Maddie, who was well beyond annoyance, said for the umpteenth time.

"I know but do you think if try shaking him, or if I try making some noise, that he'll wake up faster?"

"Jack," she began sternly but her face eased up in a way of understanding, "While that theory may be true on more than one level, I highly doubt that would cause more harm than good. The stars know that we already have a bad reputation, or at least the reputation as 'that weird couple'. This is the last hospital in the general area of Amity Park which we haven't been banned from and I highly doubt the nurses, who are keeping an eye on us and already dislike us, would appreciate it if we shook somebody, even if he is our son, who is a patient that just got out of the intensive care unit _for extensive skin and muscle damage_."

Jack lowered himself into one of the chairs next to Jazz the rather small hospital room was decorated with and sent something mixed with a pout and a scowl to his wife that was still standing up next to the bed. "Fine," he sighed in a short reply, without malice, but still rather loudly. "I will not shake Danny to wake him up, but I will instead just sit here and think of some sort of loophole. I bet that I can create some sorta gadget that will work.. Yes, I'll invent something to wake up people without making anyone mad," said the man, not even trying to hide his schemes.

"Dear. Honey. I don't even think it's even possible to wake up someone like Danny who is a teen who loves sleep forcibly without making the person in question the slightest bit mad. Therefore whatever invention you have in mind would fail," Maddie retorted in a fond manner, haven given up on being angry.

"Alright then, I'll just have to make an invention to remove the emotion of anger entirely while having the function of being able to wake up people."

Laughter escaped the woman when that ridiculous idea was declared. It was actually a miracle that that she hadn't already began to laugh a bit before due the nature of and her part in the conversation which took a somewhat comical turn. Jack was now grinning because he thought that he won but Maddie came up with her next counter-argument. Her mind had came up on a way to debunk that claim incredibly fast, actually. One of the problems with that idea was something like that would take over a month to build, if they knew what they were doing and all the parts could be ready for assembly. Besides possibly being useful for getting Danny up in the mornings by the time school started again, they wouldn't really have much use for it. Jack never got to hear what the response would have been though, Jazz spoke first.

"I would love to write a library's worth on the concept of and the possible psychological effects of 'removing anger' could have on a parson if it was even possible and why you shouldn't do it, but that would mean a lifetime worth of writing so I'll just be the voice of reason in a more forward way instead, Dad. I don't even think that machine would even be necessary... I think you've already woke Danny up when you two were getting excited about that invention.. concept thinggy..." she finished the sentence with a hand gesture and her parents let out a small 'oh'. Thus they forgot about their casual argument, or at least let it rest to be resumed latter.

Jazz, of course, was right. The boy in question was beginning to stir. Slow rises and falls of his chest were becoming closer to the rhythm regular breaths. His face, namely his jaw, began to move a bit, like he was moving his tongue across the roof of his mouth to test how dry his mouth was. Previously still fingers on his right hand were twitched experimentally then the same action was reported fingers on his left. The action of moving fingers on the sore arm which retained the worst electrocution damage and was treated not too long ago made him wince. Danny spent another minute doing this before his eyes finally cracked open.

The Jazz and Jack, who moved from the chairs to standing right next to Maddie over the edge of the bed that Danny lay in, were able to let go of the breath that they weren't even aware that they were holding. His eyes were now busy on surveying the room he didn't recognize before they focused on the faces of his family. The faces of his family that were decorated with the nearly invisible traces of furrowed brows that indicated worry and concern and pushed behind the more prominent delicate smiles that signal good news and relief.

Danny greeted his audience with a simple hello. They responded with cautious hugs, not wanting to hurt the boy. After he found more of his voice, he got help from them with drinking a glass of water because his arms didn't want to fully cooperate with him quite yet. After the family effort to get Danny a drink of water, they began with asking him how he felt and if he remembered how he landed himself in the hospital. He hesitated before he replied. Finally he said in a rather lame manner that while he didn't remember much, besides he trying to clean one thing and then tripping on another, that he did feel like he was a viciously tenderized and fried piece of meat. His parent's faces fell just a unnoticeable bit, which he noted despite being out of it. Nobody acted like that happened though and everybody proceeded to tell him about their week.

Danny learned that his family had a awful week. The conversation, which was mostly everyone chattering for the sake of making noise and filling time to the him about one thing or another while said teenager gave small, tired, and halfhearted nods for replies, went on for a hour before Danny fell asleep again.

Three days later and Danny was still feeling terrible but at the same time he was loads better by time he was allowed to get visitors that weren't his intermediate family. That was good because he was dreadfully bored. He already used the only entertainment he had available, which was counting the spots on the ceiling, to occupy his mind. At the moment Danny did not want to be alone with his thoughts. They were bothering him. Like the ones that were asking since when was his eyesight good enough to see every individual dot on the ceiling. Nope. Danny did not want to think of something that his bored mind was probably just exaggerating. Noise prevented these thoughts from roaming much more, to his delight. And the noise itself was not bad either because it was the clamor he reconsidered as his family. Who also came along with his two best friends.

Que the chorus of angles and an analogy comparing those people who had just walked into Danny's hospital room to beams of sunlight after a storm, or something poetic like that.

As the door opened and his friends and family poured into the small space, he tried his hardest to not wince as he positioned himself from laying down to sitting up in his bed so he could be braced to take in the river of hugs that he was about to be showered with. Considering how his entire back and left arm stung badly when he moved them or rubbed them against the fabric of his bed, he would say he did a decent job because his mom and Jazz weren't giving him lectures about being gentle with his body. The greetings and pleasantries that required people to touch his still hurt body were done and over with, gladly for him. His intermediate family stepped back while they left Danny to talk with his two best friends.

"But seriously. We were so bored without you around at first and then we were worried. I'm glad my parents even let me visit you, considering the bad impression they have of you," Sam mumbled, at the end of the monologue she just preformed with Tucker at the side of Danny's bed.

"At first you guys were bored but _then_ you got worried when I was not around," Danny said with fake hurt plus a pause for a more dramatic affect, "Do feel free to elaborate."

"Well Dude, for the first four days we didn't even know you got into some mysterious lab accident until we decided messaging you wouldn't do any good, because that's what we were doing for three days straight. We went to your house to see if you got grounded, or if there was something else that could explain why you disappeared off the face of the Internet. When we got there, we were whisked away to talk with your parents and then we got filled in on the whole hospital deal. Oh, and Jazz kept us updated on you. Even with that, both me and Sam still were worried though," Tucker elaborated at request.

"Also it didn't help that your parents gave us pictures of the blood-bathed, fiery battle field that was the lab that they took in order to document the aftermath. I think that made us think you became something worse than barbecued chicken," Sam added.

"Good thing you're healing up good too because our friendly neighborhood vegetarian here would have to abandon you if you were a piece of barbecued chicken," Tucker said resulting in Sam giving him a glare that could cut steel, which made him snicker while swiftly moving out of Sam's intermediate punching radius without a word.

"I guess that I'm lucky that I feel more on the scale of fried chicken. Wait, no. I'm doing better so maybe I've downgraded to the scale of barbecued chicken.. I guess this means the end of our friendship, Sam. But either way, it could be considered _foul_ play," Danny said with a lopsided grin.

"As my fellow human who has decided to identify as a piece of meat, I have decided to honor you with the sacred gift of your technology rectangle and the chord which to power it with, because you have made a pun, and puns deserve rewards," said Tucker, who had moved back closer to Sam's side and was now looking at his goth friend expectantly. The goth rolled her eyes while talking off the backpack she had been wearing and proceeded to unzip it and to and fish around inside of it.

"A 'technology rectangle and the chord to power it with' are crude words for somebody who holds the title as a techno-geek at such high esteem such as yourself, Tuck. But I'm guessing what you mean is you want me to give Danny his phone and charger," Sam spoke while handing over the very items they were speaking of.

Danny accepted them with his good arm along with his ever present grin. He was not in the least surprised at all that his two best friends were the ones who knew him well enough to know what kind of things to bring him in situations like this. "Oh, I'm glad to see my phone. I've been driving myself crazy with boredom over the past few days. Thanks for thinking of this," he said while his blue eyes were already busy looking at the screen. "Crazy how much things you can miss when you aren't on the Internet for over a week. And seriously guys, I'm speechless and i expected nothing less," he had by now saw most of his notifications. "Y _ou both sent me over eight hundred messages in total."_

"Well, we did try to reach you for a while.. and we decided to spam you because, ya know, that usually gets your attention," was the reply that Tucker offered for both he and Sam, even if it wasn't needed.

 _Aaaaaaand there we go. Fiiiiiiiiiinaly got this chappie done :)_  
 _But yeah. The last half feels sorta forced? idk lol, but i needed to include it. Ghost hunting AU where Sam and Tuck weren't there so they don't know Danny's secret? What could possibly go wrong? Also we can consider that the halfa himself doesn't know shit about anything yet(or at least, we don't know everything that he knows)- well, he has some small suspicion as of now but still. :))))_  
 _Hehe I'm sorta excited to write more of this :3_

 _As always, opinions, comments, conservative criticism, theories, or any type of review that won't scare me away from writing in general is welcome and encouraged. Thanks for reading :D_  
 _-CIW_


End file.
